Everyone Talks
by Steve Zissou
Summary: The teachers talk. The students talk. Everyone talks but her but Darcy is new and she doesn't know better. Loki is sure she'll get her education of how things work soon enough. DarcyXLoki High School AU
1. Chapter 1

From a prompt a million years ago that is a high school AU! Featuring Thor, Loki, Jane, Darcy and a slew of others and focuses on new girl Darcy with loner Loki.

Multi chapter so this is chapter 1/intro (omfg its super short tbh) and also crossposting on my tumblr: youvejustbeenlokid

* * *

His brother is brawn and power and terribly charming grins that make girls go weak in the knees. His brother is glorious on the football field and gives everyone high fives, even the short freshman trying to get his locker undone before the second period bell rings signaling he is late. His brother has eyes for a girl named Jane Foster, senior class valedictorian and the slayer of all learning curves in every class she takes.

His brother is perfect and loved by all.

Sometimes he wishes he were his brother.

He is the one who smokes under the bleachers before first period English. He's the one that is slim, quick, as charming as a snake and sometimes twice as dangerous. He's the boy warned about to new students. Don't take him too serious, don't believe him when he tells you something is okay to do because chances are you're being set up. The only one who controls the boy is his brother and sometimes his brother simply lets him get away with his tricks. He's the one who has pulled the fire alarm so much that when the school actually had reason to evacuate everyone thought it was a joke until they saw the smoke.

And he probably started that one too, but there has never been any real evidence. The teachers talk. The students talk. Everyone talks but _her_ but Darcy is new and she doesn't know better. Loki is sure she'll get her education of how things work soon enough.


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter and actually I have no real idea where this is going soooo…. haha OH WELL I GUESS. I think the first chapter serves as a general intro or something. whatever.

crossposted on my tumblr (youvejustbeenlokid)

thank you to all the reviews thus far! very encouraging bunch! :3

* * *

Darcy is Jane's not-as-brainy cousin. She takes offense to when Jane's parents, Darcy's Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ted, tell the school's principal that Darcy is smart in a way that is worth having around. It's like they have to convince the principal that Darcy is good enough for the school even though she already knows she'll get in.

Dead parents equal the sympathetic pull she needs to have Principal Fury overlooking her less than exlempary grades. She is smart, says Aunt Cindy, but she's always had a different way of learning. Uncle Ted says it's the kind of smart you wouldn't believe until you see it. Darcy supposes that is kind of true.

She has never been good with homework is her problem but test her, go ahead. Really, test her. In fact, make her write essays. Better yet get her to stand in front of the class and teach the lesson for you. She can do it. She can do it and she can make people relate to things that just don't get high school kids on the edge of their seats. Darcy is the kind of smart that talks too much and doesn't remember to do homework or turn it in. She's the kid that has to sit on her hands to keep from having her hand shoot up in class so she can interrupt a lecture.

Don't call on her unless you have time for an argument in your class.

She wants to argue now. She wants to stand up and scream, actually. She wants to kick her chair over and throw her hands up in the air and say _I'm not good enough?! Bitch, I'm better!_

But this is just her anger flairing up and it is to be expected, says the therapist that Uncle Ted and Aunt Cindy send her to for grief counseling. It's one of the stages, or something. Everything pisses her off lately and the therapist says let it happen. Says it's healthy and so let it come and then breathe it out.

"We're happy to have her at the Stark institute of Higher Learning," says Principal Fury and Darcy realizes he is leaning over like he wants to shake her hand, accept her, but she has been daydreaming about kicking her chair over and screaming until she is hoarse. She manages to lean forward and grip his hand briefly before she is ushered out of the office and into the main secretary's office where she has a feeling she'll soon be showing up more often than not.

Better get used to this face, she thinks, as she eyes the three secretaries busy working at their high tech computers with Stark Industry logos plastered to the side of the monitors. One of the secretaries is playing some kind of computer game and is caught red handed by Darcy, who smirks knowingly as the woman clicks away into another program to look busy again.

"Are you sure you want to do this today? You can start fresh on Monday, take a three day weekend-" begins Aunt Carol but Darcy snatches the schedule out of her Aunt's hand and pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"What? And get even more behind? But I'm such a stellar student, can't be falling behind," there is an all to clear hint of venom in her tone and her Aunt and Uncle share a painful glance between themselves.

"If you are sure. Have a good day, Darcy," Uncle Ted gives her shoulder a squeeze and the pair leave Darcy staring at her new schedule with a furrowed brow. She's already missed at least half of first period English so she decides to go ahead and skip the rest while she is ahead. It's a pretty good plan to her, at least.

Before the secretaries or anyone else can force some passing student or aid to give her the ol' tour of the school, Darcy books it out the door and heads off in the direction of the football field she saw when they drove up to the front of the school. If she gets caught cutting class she is pretty sure she won't get in any real trouble and explaining she needs fresh air before the rest of her day seems like a fairly legit excuse. In fact, it's the damned truth.

When she manages to sneak outside by the gyms she feels herself gulping down the air like it's water and she has been thirsting for an age now. She moves further down the sidewalk that edges around the main gym toward the practice football field and she shifts her backpack from her back to hold it over her stomach instead. Her back presses against the wall of the gym and Darcy tilts her chin up until the crown of her skull hits the brick. Lightly she taps her head against the brick again and again and again. This is how she keeps from crying.

Several feet away a dark haired boy smoking under the bleachers watches. He takes a heavy drag on his cigarette and watches her through the haze of smoke rolling off his lips. When she finally stops hitting her head he watches her push off the wall and head back inside.

Five minutes and one more cigarette later, so does he


	3. Chapter 3

Okaaaay third chapter and IDk if I like it, might be too short tbh. Or too long! Still finding my groove and yesss I am introducing a shit ton of other characters not even in the marvel movieverse.

Enjoy!

read, review, whatever :)

* * *

The first week is a blur. Faces and names and abilities and who is with who and who hates who and who is probably better to know and who isn't? Yeah, it goes straight over her head. Darcy knows now why her Aunt and Uncle had to really push and sell the idea of Darcy fitting in because they knew deep down that she wouldn't. She isn't like Jane, who is so far ahead in her classes that she is taking college level courses for double credits. She isn't like Jane's boyfriend who is a glorified exchange student from another realm. She isn't like Jane's lab partner in physics, a guy with his name plastered all over his father's school and an intellect that even trumps Jane's.

They say Tony Stark has already built tech the army wants. The freaking army wants this seventeen year old kid's technology. If that doesn't go to a kid's head, Darcy doesn't know what will. Sure enough when she meets Tony Stark he is a grinning, over-confident, charming kind of ass hole that ends up claiming to like her attitude.

It's probably has everything to do with the way she calls him sparky and asks if the arc reactor in his chest doubles as a night light. Jane looks mortified and laughs nervously. Tony's laugh is like a bark, loud and heavy and Darcy doesn't know if it's real or if he is just really good at making it sound like he is amused.

But it is a week later and his name is the only one she really recalls with much clarity. She has to introduce herself to Tony's girlfriend Pepper twice before her name sticks and Darcy actually feels pretty bad about it. Pepper is sharp as a tack and seems to be able to handle her shit and Tony's without breaking a sweat but she smiles with such sincerity that Darcy can't help but want to gravitate toward her. This turns out to be a good move because Pepper knows _everyone_.

That's how she starts to learn who is who.

There is Jane, and there is a boy named Reed and a boy named Bruce that are all vying for the top of the class but Pepper is pretty sure Jane has them beat and she has Thor to thank for that.

"Her paper on the Einstein–Rosen bridge is unbelievable but, he really helped her understand the concept of how it might really work. They have that, you know? In Asgard, they call it the Bifrost Bridge. Tony swears Thor promised to take them one day but I don't see it happening that easily. I mean, think about it, we got what? Six Asgardians and they took none in return. Not much of an exchange…"

"Really?" Darcy glances over to the table where the Asgardians tend to sit together. There is so much food piled up between them that it looks like someone went to McDonald's on one of the twenty-nine cent cheeseburger days and ordered fifty just for the six of them alone.

"I'm surprised they even let them come. It was Thor's mom's idea, though. I'm pretty sure anyway," Pepper shakes her head and takes a bite of her apple as Darcy continues to drink in the table of exchange students that seem to be mostly made up of the star players of the football team and two others that really look as if they don't quite belong.

Thor is the star quarterback. It's not much of a title considering the school doesn't actually participate in games with normal local schools but it means something when they have their games against the two other schools like this one. The Xavier Institute is brimming with talent and so is the Massachusetts Academy. It takes a god of thunder as quarterback to even match the fact that the Xavier Institute's star player can't die and the Massachusetts Academy has one with superhuman strength. To say the games are explosive are really an understatement.

Fandral, Huginn, Volstagg and Sif make up the other star players. Fandral is insanely quick, Huginn the best tight end, and Volstagg has a way of making even mutant opposing players tremble and say a prayer for their safety when he steps on a field. Sif is their kicker and she hasn't missed a field goal yet. Jane doesn't quite like her, but then Jane probably wouldn't look like a freaking model in football gear so Darcy gets the concern. It's fairly obvious, though, that Thor only has eyes for Jane.

In fact it's who he beckons over when Jane finally gets out of the line for the school's idea of chicken pot pie surprise. (The surprise is no one finds it edible, not even the guys that are indestructable. It's nearly like kryptonite. Darcy suspects this is how they keep the superhumans in line.) Jane is pulled into a seat by Thor and she blushes wildly at something he says to the group that has them all laughing.

Everyone but two.

There is a girl with hair as blonde as Thor's and she seems to be smiling but her eyes are cold. She looks more like a model, like Sif, but even more so in that she plays up her obvious good looks. If there was ever an _it_ girl at this school then it's her. Or Sue Storm, but Sue Storm is too nice to realize she is an it girl. This one looks catty enough to play the part and sure enough when she speaks Jane smiles too but her eyes go cold as well and it's so damn chilly between them that Darcy swears she can feel the temprature drop.

"Amora has it bad for Thor," Pepper's words draw her gaze away briefly and Darcy tilts her head. Pepper looks mildly miffed and Darcy can only guess at what isn't being said. Amora has it bad for Thor but will have it bad for anyone she can't have, including Pepper's boyfriend Tony Stark.

"But she hangs out more with Loki, Thor's brother."

That's when Darcy turns her gaze back to the Asgardian table and she sees him, the boy that looks more out of place than Amora. At least Amora looks like she could be a cheerleader sitting at the jock table. Loki is paler than Thor, with a crop of dark, dark hair as compared to Thor's fun-in-the-sun golden boy look. Thor is handsome, but Loki is too just in a different way. Loki looks like he would find himself more at ease sitting among a crowd of sallow faced goths. Or, no, not goths. No, maybe just sitting alone. Maybe sitting alone and reading, or doing his homework, or something serious because he looks very serious and-

Someone makes a joke. Loki smiles. He smiles with his teeth and his eyes close as he laughs and Thor laughs too and the pair look so god damn happy for a split second that Darcy finds herself jealous. Finds herself asking why _she_ isn't that happy and how did they find it and where can she get it god damnit. But then Loki turns his gaze away from the one who made a joke and Darcy is caught openly staring.

She doesn't look away. He's still smiling, mouth closed now, but it doesn't reach his eyes. Amora sets a hand on Loki's bicep and their little staring contest (because Darcy won't back down, isn't sure she knows how to do something like that, you know, back down from challenges even when it's as dumb as a staring contest) is over as quickly as it began. Pepper's voice brings her back out of her thoughts once more.

"I know Jane's your cousin, and Thor is okay and all but honestly? I'd stay away from Loki. He's bad news. Thor usually can keep him in check but he doesn't seem to like this whole exchange student idea. He thinks the most of us are beneathe him or something. And we have two minutes in counting, want me to walk with you to your next class?"

Darcy hasn't yet looked away from Loki, even if she is listening to Pepper. She stands up and gathers her books under one arm, the other picking up her tray as Loki turns his eyes upon her once more. He smirks. She smiles. It's probably because something about his smile, smirk or not, is infections.

Darcy starts to walk, half entertaining the idea of dropping by to say hi to Jane and the rest, but then Loki makes a small motion with his hand and her tray of half-eaten food goes flying and so does she like she's just stepped on a banana peel. Like some kind of freakish cartoon character she is up, up, up in the air and very aware that her whole body is about to completely hurt. She is vaguely aware of Jane shouting something, maybe like _watch out_, but she is also aware that some girl is laughing from that same table.

Then there is an arm curling around her waist and a hand reaching out to pluck the tray out of the air as it falls so it can be used like a shield against the falling food. Darcy has her eyes shut tight and a voice, very much a boy's voice, says to her, "are you okay, miss?"


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys, thanks to everyone following and anyone who has reviewed or whatever. I really appreciate it!

* * *

Steve Rogers has eyes as blue as the ocean and his smile is twice as wide. Darcy suddenly wishes she thought twice about what she had eaten for lunch because his face is so close she is positive he can smell what she had eaten when she breathes. So she holds her breath and her cheeks go red, red, red and he asks again, kindly, warmly, "are you okay, miss?"

She's fine, she wants to say. Just had a little accident, she wants to say, but that sounds more like she peed herself so she goes even redder in the cheeks until her skin feels like it is on fire. He still has an arm around her, she is still practically being dipped in this position and suddenly she is highly aware that there is clapping all around them.

Real mature, the lot of them, clapping at her spill which actually isn't so accidental and she knows it. Or so she thinks, assumes, because she did see Loki do a gesture and she recalls being very plainly told that the Asgardian is capable of feats that constantly impress the resident Biology teacher and Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange. But Amora has the same sort of gift too and actually, now that Darcy is becoming aware of her surrondings again, she thinks she can hear the two of them laughing the very loudest of the bunch.

Her eyes flash angrily but Steve is helping her up and he hasn't done anything but help so she can't possibly rage in front of him. Besides, now she is completely aware that he is watching her expectantly and all because- oh! The question!

"Yes!"

She nearly shouts, he tilts his head, the laughs from that table get louder so she finally looks over and finds not only is Amora dipping her head back and laughing like it's going out of style, but Loki is staring at her.

And smirking.

She gives him the finger, the smirk turns quick to a scowl.

Steve clears his throat and again she is brought back to how she is totally standing beside a really ridiculously handsome guy (senior, possibly?) who seems mildly uncomfortable at what she just did. She can't figure why until he introduces himself.

Steve Rogers.

Oh.

Fuck.

If it is at all possible she would very much like to die now, or hide in the girl's bathroom until school is over. She got shielded by Steve Rogers who technically is a senior, a senior citizen. He is in his eighties if you count the years apparently spent on ice. Pepper told her everything. Steve looks eighteen at the most, didn't even finish his senior year because he dropped out to try and join the army and they took him. They being the same people that help run this school of the ridiculously gifted and talented. Steve is a hero but he wakes up and there is no war.

So they tell him, go to school Cap. Get your diploma. So he does, so here he is, looking proper as hell and probably feeling wildly embarrassed that this girl he just saved from the flying mashed potatoes has got a temper problem and is flicking off exchange students from Asgard.

"Sorry," she manages, grabbing her bag that fell and lucky her, nothing marred it in the fall. She turns to make her quick escape and shouts a t_hank you, sorry, thank you_, over her shoulder.

Darcy spends the rest of her day with her head down and her brain working on overdrive. She doesn't get what she did to deserve it and she knows, just _knows_ it was Loki, and possibly Amora, so she has options now.

She can confront him and risk being spelled silly (she can't believe that is still even an option in her life that someone could Wingardium Leviosa her ass without a need for a wand even) or she can ignore it and hope he ignores her (but that seems impossible because his brother is dating her cousin) or she can get revenge (danger, danger, but oh wouldn't it be great?) and so she makes a list of these pros and cons in history.

It turns out confronting might be her best option since it is bound to happen eventually and Darcy considers that bit about Thor dating Jane making her somewhat more invincible. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe. She knows where that same group tends to gather after school and she knows Jane might expect her there because her parents have told Jane to let Darcy tag along but when Darcy sets out to head to this cafe down the street from the school she finds herself running into Steve Rogers again.

Jesus Christ it really is unfair how he looks when he leans against his motorcycle and smiles all wide and warm at her when she heads out of the main entrance. And she knows he is waiting for _her_ because he locks eyes and nods his head and, thumb jerking over his shoulder at his bike when she is near enough to hear him.

"Want a ride?"

She almost loses it when she notices he seems to go pink in the cheeks after asking. Darcy hugs her books close to her chest. Confronting Loki and Amora will happen another time, today she is taking a ride on a vintage motorcycle with Steve Rogers.

It turns out that Steve is about as shy about talking to her as she is to him but he wants to really make sure she feels welcomed at the school. He says he was never good talking to girls and that he also knows what it's like to feel out of place in a new group of people. He says before the serum he didn't fit in with the army guys. He says she'll find her place though, he's darn sure of it and Darcy laughs until her stomach hurts and until he laughs with her even though it's brought on by his use of_darn_ and _gee, Darcy_.

Friendship comes easy for them. What starts out as Steve taking her for a bike ride and then coffee before taking her home because he thinks she could use it turns into her promising she'll help him figure out how to use an ipod. Turns into her saying _first order of business is Star Wars and don't argue with me_.

It's nice. She finds out really quick that Steve says what he means and that honesty is important to him and there are no games that he plays. She finds out quick that it is easy to tell Steve something and for him to be sincerely listening. It feels nice because as nice as Jane is, she is always too busy to really hear Darcy out and it's the same for her Aunt and Uncle.

But while she aches to spill to Steve about what happened and why she is here she finds herself lying instead.

"My parents? Oh, uhm, they wanted me to come to this school so I'm just staying with Jane now, you know, until I graduate."

Her heart sinks when he believes her.

* * *

Darcy has a ritual that began her first day and continues through the second week and even into the third. It's the week after the cafeteria incident and she starts her day off by reading outside the gym where few people walk before first period. She likes the solitude versus the buzz of students gathering in the commons before rushing to lockers and classrooms. The probem is it doesn't stay quiet when suddenly someone decides to find her and talk to her and make her lose her place in her book.

"Are you lost?"

She doesn't look up, she is trying to finish just one lousy paragraph first. Then she feels the toe of someone's shoe prodding at her shin and she loses her place as she snaps her head up to glare at the person.

Loki looks pleased by her reaction and standing this close to her she can see how god damn green his eyes really are. She wants to put her leg out and trip him but she doesn't. Instead she keeps her glare going and slaps her book shut.

"Are you?"

It's kind of a dumb reply but it's already spoken into existance before she can really come up with something better. His smirk is now a grin, all teeth again.

"Clearly not. But you are. You can't be here."

Darcy doesn't get it. She might have understood had her solitary place been in an obviously restricted part of the school or it's grounds but it isn't. She also doesn't get why he, of all people, decides he has the right to say this because she can't recall having seen him in this very spot the days before. Is there something she is missing? She narrows her eyes and stands up.

Fucking bastard is tall as hell, too. She is at least eight inches shorter and has to tilt her chin up to really look him in the eye.

"Alright, I was going to let this go but let's do this. Here, here, I'll start. I'm going to say why not and then maybe you'll say because you said so, for whatever dumb reason you have, and then I'll say that I don't see your name on it and then I bet you'll say something else really dumb or try to turn me into a frog or whatever it is magical alien gods do and then I'll be hopping mad, pun intended, and then you'll get in trouble for having done that and then you'll be mad that you got in trouble and then this will go on forever where we are really mad at each other and all because you have no real reason to tell me why I can't sit here before school starts and read my mother _fucking_ book."

Darcy is raging. Loki steps backward then realizes he has stepped backward because she is prodding his chest. Then she realizes she just prodded his jest and has also just yelled at him and maybe now she thinks there could be some actual reason he saying this but-

"Do you have _any_ idea who I am?" he practically hisses.

"Yeah, you're the douche that fucked with me in the cafeteria. I'm on to you Harry Potter," oh god, oh god, she is going to be turned into a frog, oh god. Darcy, though, is a stubborn and prideful little thing who can't help but feel compelled to finish what she starts. So while he sputters in response to her mouthing off she makes a clear motion with her fingers that she is indeed aware of his shit. Two fingers motion to her eyes then motion to him and then she makes her grand escape just as the bell rings to alert students that they have five minutes to get to first period.

It seems luck is on her side though because she is told she can eat lunch in the art room and finish some project she is working on and that way she avoids seeing Loki, and then she manages to take every possible route to classes that seem to not cross his path. But when school ends and the bell signals that the weekend is finally there her luck runs out.

Steve has taken to giving her rides home after school but he texts her and says he can't so Jane says she will. And that is how she ends up sitting beside Loki in the backseat of Jane's sedan where she prays he does not suddenly decide right then and there to truly turn her into a frog.

Darcy really wishes she had the power to turn invisible right then because he won't _stop_ staring.


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you to all the followers and reviews!

* * *

The worst thing possible happens. Or, well, it's not really the worst thing but it seems pretty shitty because Darcy wants to stay mad at Loki. She wants it because it would make all her anger feel really justified if she can honestly say someone is doing her wrong. She can't stay mad at her cousin or at her Aunt and Uncle, they're doing her a solid by letting her live with them and by getting her into that school with Jane. Even Jane, though she doesn't seem to listen very well, is nice enough to offer rides and check Darcy's homework.

The worst thing possible happens; Loki gives her a reason to laugh and not at him and not because she can't believe he just said something assinine but because the guy is actually kind of funny and Jane and Thor don't get his humor. He doesn't say his comments for Darcy's benefit at first but when they go out to the cafe to work on homework together he says something under his breath about the two lovebirds across from them and Darcy hears and snorts she laughs so loud.

Jane and Thor hear that but not Loki's comment and Loki stares at her for a moment before the corners of his mouth lift in a small, knowing smile. He continues to make remarks that get Darcy wanting to just keel over while Thor and Jane remain oblivious the entire time. It's awful. It's the worst.

She hasn't laughed like this since her parents died. Not even Steve gets her humor, he is too nice to really get her humor. It's awful and the fact that it is suddenly hits her hard so she stands up too quick and nearly knocks over her coke in the process. Three sets of eyes watch her, two with concern and one looking mildly confused.

"I'm going to walk home, I.. uh, left something at home I need for .. studying," she says, a lie that Jane and Thor swallow down easily. Loki is harder to convince but he doesn't say this and she doesn't bother staying long enough to see him give her a look that conveys his disbelief.

Darcy is two blocks down the street when he appears out of thin air and scares the daylights out of her. She forgets, once more, that this is practically a god even as she assaults him with her hand slapping his arm hard. He barely flinches and her hand stings.

"Don't _do_ that!"

Darcy should know better than to hit him again but she does, and then shakes her hand as it throbs from what felt like slapping a rock. His smile is catlike and when she starts to walk again he falls into step beside her which prompts her into giving him a sidelong look.

"What do you want? Gonna tell me I can't walk on this sidewalk, that I'm not allowed?"

Loki shrugs, "that was clearly a misunderstanding. On your part."

She really wishes she never showed any amusement at his stupid commentary now. She feels like an idiot. He's still being an ass and he knows he can get to her funnybone which makes her feel weirdly vulnerable.

"You have five seconds to explain it to me or I'm going to-"

"Thor and Jane want to make sure you're okay. Jane told me."

Her heart skips a beat. Suddenly she wants to throttle Jane. She has managed to go these few weeks without having anyone find out, without anyone treating her differently because of what happened. It's bad enough that some of the supers don't even catch her on their radar because she isn't exactly like them or like the over-athletic, tactical and militaristic types that make up the rest of the school. Darcy already sticks out like a sore thumb, she doesn't need anyone's fake sympathy or worse, reason for them to make fun of her.

Teenagers are cruel, Darcy knows this first hand.

"I'm _fine_," she says, jaw clenched and voice tight. Darcy picks up her pace but his long legs carry him quicker as well and she can't avoid him. Especially not when he takes her by her elbow and oh god, oh god, her stomach twists and knots and her breath hitches and her cry is strangled then _pop_!

They are standing outside of Jane's house and he is still holding on to her elbow as she swallows down air and tries to keep from losing her lunch all over the sidewalk. A moment later and she is wrenching her arm away and shoving him all at once. He barely budges, doesn't even look sorry.

"What the hell was that?!"

He narrows his eyes at this absurd questioning of the favor he just did her but ends up handing over her backpack which was somehow plucked from her shoulder by his hand in the process of the teleportation.

"You're home now, Jane and Thor won't worry, and I can get on with not studying for the physics exam I have tomorrow. You're welcome."

Darcy wants to hit him as hard as she can but she knows better, knows her poor knuckles can't take cheekbones as sharp as his and Asgardian skin that is as tough as god damn rocks. She wants to shout too but all she can manage is biting her tongue and grabbing her backpack with as much force as she can muster. Then wordlessly she marches inside and slams the door, causing her Aunt to shout something to the effect of _we don't slam doors in this house, young lady_.

* * *

That night Darcy dreams in color. Mostly she dreams of green and it's everywhere. She is standing in a forest and she is sitting in the grass and she is knee deep in water as green as emeralds and then she is drowning, drowning, drowning and clawing at the insides of a car and everything goes so red like she's drowning in blood and she can hear the muffled scream of her mother and her father and

She wakes up and there is blood on her thighs and on her sheets. For a second she panicks and scrambles off her bed half expecting to feel the familiar ache that came from glass cutting into her hips and across her stomach. Instead she is met with the dull throb from cramps and Darcy realizes she has simply started her stupid period.

She doesn't sleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

Loki doesn't talk to her again but he also doesn't mess with her either. She is definitely okay with this but it doesn't mean they never bump into each other again. He is a staple on the days Jane has to take her home. He is there, across the lunch room, often caught staring at her as she eats with Pepper, Steve, and Tony. Sometimes Jane and Thor join them with the other Asgardians and Amora and Loki are left alone looking terribly elite and beautiful together.

Amora catches Loki staring at Darcy one time too many. Little things start to happen. Homework she knew she did goes missing. Her lipstick she puts on goes on blue and doesn't come off until somehow, later at the cafe while sitting beside Loki, it appears normal again. All week this happens and then Friday she is dropping off half-eaten lasagna to a trash can in the cafeteria when her feet go out from under her again, like they did before.

All she can think in that moment where she is weightless and watching lasgana rain down on her is that she is going to seriously lose it and get kicked out of the school for assaulting the bitch she knows is behind it but the familiar feel of an arm curling around her makes her glad she was sitting near Steve.

Except it isn't Steve that asks if she is okay. It's not blue eyes looking at her, it's green and she remembers the dream and drowning in green that turned red and then her stomach knots and twists as Loki whisks them away from the view of the suddenly very quiet cafeteria.


	6. Chapter 6

Wow this took forever, mostly bc I lost my vision for where this was going so, meh, here you go!

* * *

Skipping school is wrong, she says. It's truancy. If they get caught-

"We won't get caught."

Loki takes them to central park. They sit alone in Strawberry Fields in Central Park and Darcy feels very disconnected from the day she had been having up until then. It doesn't feel like she was ever at school. She feels like sitting in Strawberry Fields with Loki and watching people walk past has been their thing for an age now.

Loki looks peaceful, unconcerned by the act of magic he has just committed.

"This isn't going to be a thing," he says finally. She isn't sure if she believes him, she isn't sure if she likes the idea of it being a thing though. Darcy is quiet, quiet, quiet and Loki doesn't seem to care. He continues to watche people drift past without much concern for her but when a sketchy looking man settles on a bench near them she feels his hand lowering on to her shoulder.

"Come on."

They walk aimlessly around the park. Eventually the silence gets to her and she pulls her ipod from her jacket, offering him an earbud. It seems fitting to listen to Andrew Bird. If Loki likes the music he doesn't say so, but he doesn't recline her offer and does fit the earbud in. They walk close to keep from pulling the headphones out of each other's ears.

Eventually his arm slides around her waist.

Eventually, he takes her home.

* * *

"Is this true?"

Vice Principal Coulson looks between the two but directs the question to Darcy. They weren't caught because there was nothing to catch. Everyone saw it happen. Vice Principal Coulson has them pulled out of homeroom the very next day to dole out proper punishments but Loki speaks plainly of his reasons for doing what he did.

"Yes, sir."

He throws Amora under the bus.

Amora doesn't take this lightly.

* * *

Things get tricky. Things get tough. Real tough. Darcy can't prove it's Amora just like she couldn't really prove it had been Loki that made her lunch fly that first time, but she's sure it's the Asgardian's work. Who else would even bother? But she takes it like a fucking champ, with a shit eating grin and sharp glances given to the blonde when she passes.

Eat me, blondie.

First it's her locker. Her books are covered in shaving cream. Then her gym clothes go missing from her locker. Then it's not just then they go missing but right after she takes a shower after P.E. and her towel is gone and so are all the ones that should be on the sheves in the girl's locker room.

Darcy gets detention for walking butt naked out of the girl's locker room to get towels from the boy's. Poor Coach Rand dropped the net bag of footballs he has been holding and Mr. Murdock, who was walking with him, is told it's a damned good thing he couldn't see.

Things get tricky and she can't just call her out on her shit and it feels like it'll end soon enough anyway because Loki is back to sitting beside Amora at lunch and back to ignoring Darcy where everyone can see.

But no one knows that when they walk home early from cafe studying sessions he pulls her through space and time and god knows what until they're spending the afternoon in Central Park.

It's not a thing, he says. Not a thing at all.

It's so a thing. It's such a thing that Darcy expects it every time and poor Steve is left wondering why she won't let him drive her home anymore and Jane finds it curious that Darcy and Loki both decide to skip the cafe sessions all together, without much explanation given as to why and where they do their studying now.

It's such a thing and when he kisses her under the golden trees that shed their leaves with slightest breeze he says, not a thing, not a thing, but she can feel his heart's bray under her fingertips and it says differently.

She kisses him back and his tongue is so very cold against her warm lips.

She's seventeen and her first love is a god with a bad reputation and a vengeful ex girlfriend that will stop at nothing to make Darcy feel her pain. She's seventeen and her first love won't kiss her in front of people they know but he'll hold her hand in front of complete strangers in a park.


End file.
